Various viscous fluid material, such as, toothpaste, medicaments, grease, and the like, are packaged in collapsible tubes having a dispensing end and a crimped closed end. The material is dispensed from the tube by manually squeezing the tube adjacent its closed end, and winding the tube in a direction from the closed end to the dispensing end to progressively collapse the tube wall.
With the introduction of collapsible tubes made of plastic, there has been a tendency for the tubes to return to the original un-collapsed state resulting in the tube unwinding itself, thus requiring a rewinding of the tube to dispense additional material therefrom.
Various holders have been proposed, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,782 dated Feb. 28, 1989, for holding a wound or rolled up collapsible tube to prevent it from unwinding; such as, a resilient metal strip which is positioned in the center of the rolled-up tube, the strip having protruding ends which are folded over the unwound portion of the tube to keep the rolled up portion from unwinding.
In lieu of the resilient metal strip, it has been proposed to use an elastic rubber band, wherein the lower end portion of the tube is rolled up and is held in place by the rubber band which extends through the center of the roll and across the opposing face of the tube.